


At Their Core

by Bluesy_Deth



Category: The Avengers (2012), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, Turning Points, nothing graphic, what made them who they are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-26
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-13 01:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/818487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluesy_Deth/pseuds/Bluesy_Deth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How they evolved into heroes, what makes them super and/or why they're part of the team.  </p><p>One woman's take on the character of these characters since, of course, neither they nor SHIELD actually exists.  (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Handler

Of course, he'd been a nerdy kid. The quiet, almost-teacher's pet kind. Not exactly picked last but more like he was never considered until the jocks and BFFs were chosen. Somewhere just out of thought to his peers but not offensive to them when he was seen.

He did well in math and science. He enjoyed history. Language class was a way to learn more about other subjects- his vocabulary was above average and that brought faster understanding of the core subjects. At the end of grade school, the band teacher for his future middle school met with all those being funneled there. Instruments were laid out on a table as they filed in for the sales pitch. She thought he had the possibility of being good with the french horn but he hadn't taken his eyes off the clarinet. He'd seen enough black & white movies on rainy summer afternoons to know the sounds that instrument made. So, he was a band geek for the next few years, a jazz combo member which made him weird to all but a few at that age.

High school brought more of an interest in his future. While he could play well he'd never be a true proficient and it never occurred to him to try composition. So, his attention focused on academic clubs and he discovered the tidy pleasure of Latin- everything neat and orderly. That lead to the debate club edging out the science club in his junior year. He was never a jock but he enjoyed the physicality of Phys Ed class. The thoughtfulness needed for reading the opposition and choosing how to alter the game plan just seemed to develop on its own in his mid-teens. Part of his maturing process, apparently. 

No need to wonder where the patriotism came from that inspired the military service. He was a fanboy before that word was invented. The service was where he blossomed, though. Where all the hints of intellect, his general physical capability and his quiet, solid emotional grounding really began to gel into the man he would become. Suddenly seeing the value in physical power and endurance in Basic had him uncharacteristically over-doing it. The doc was older and had seen it all. The earnest young man was simply told he could not make up for lost time all at once. Do well, he was told and they increased over time automatically. Tearing muscles would sideline him and hold him back. He looked at the doc solemnly while the advice was given. Looked the doc in the eye and decided the advice was well intentioned.

That may be his superpower.  
Learning to look at the difference of intent- if bullshit or well meaning- had truly been the making of the man.


	2. The Inventor

He'd never had to grow up before. Life bitchslapped him into the process without concern for that fact. He handled it fairly well once he got his traction. The brash, attention-seeking arrogance had long covered for the unloved, un-nurtured boy inside the man's oft (self) abused body. He had overcome shyness and neediness first with drugs and alcohol and lots of loud rock & roll as a diversion in case someone looked too closely. Now, the man had purpose; he had the intellect to further it. He learned to step back from the lead, to do what he could do best beside others who were of a like goal. It was new and exciting and terrifying.

He always knew he was more than his money and his name. He'd just not wanted others to get that close to know it, too. You don't help defeat the planet's first intergalactic foes without becoming More. More than a name, a financial designation or even a suit. The boy, who would have been an introvert if the attention all children needed hadn't required outrageousness to achieve, was panicking and trying to gather these new allies close. The man, who pretended the attention and closeness were what was toxic to him, was panicking and trying to overcome the walls of his own creating and reach out, too. If he could come to understand he only needed to bring the two together to become one and, therefore, succeed- then he would finally reach peace with himself.

And be ready to kick more intergalactic butt.


	3. The Demi God

He had always been adored. Always at been on top of the heap; casting a long shadow. A warrior from a warring realm, he valued honor and had a lust for life and its pleasures which was considered appropriate for a young man of his standing. A favored ruler's favored son and his companions were naturally carefree. He was not lacking in compassion nor entirely self-absorbed but merely short-sighted. He had not learned to value people beyond their usefulness in daily tasks or warring. He did not comprehend the importance of their lives to them since they were all his subjects- not his people. Not yet.

He was outcast by his father to a world of puny, short-lived mortals. Sent to learn to be a better man, a better leader- a better king for the realm. The pain and sorrow and defeat were his alone there. Not as the son of a king, not as a proud and capable warrior, not as a leader. Just him. Alone for the first time. Dependent on these puny, emotional mortals who had forgotten his kind existed. He suffered regret and remorse for not having seen how important his actions were to his own kind. The difficulties and damage he had caused with the recklessness of courting war. 

Self doubt had never been known by him. But these mortals knew it well. They knew of struggle and suffering and yet held hope. Hope for their futures; hope for better things. Willingness to welcome him at a time when he was unwanted and unworthy of all he'd held dear. Their resilience changed him. He could no longer believe only Asgardians and their will mattered. He found value in a previously ignored race and it altered him. Made him stronger by opening him to a new idea of how one could live: not courting war but enduring it if it arose. It wasn't weakness but understanding. They knew things wouldn't always go their way but they pushed on.

He who had always been adored, always been a victor, always been destined to rule- he found his strength with a tiny race that no longer knew of him. He found he wasn't so mighty, after all, and yet became all the more impressive a man from that knowledge.


	4. The Spy

The making of the woman had been accomplished by the eradication of the child. What she had been was lost to even her so she had no idea what she could have become without their interference. Clearly, she was born a survivor. If she was born a pragmatist or molded into one wasn't clear. As she was one, that line of thought didn't matter to her. 

She was street smart and book learned- a rare combination of intelligence in any place or time. As learning was considered success and success meant less discomfort, she applied her considerable intensity of will to learning. Anything they threw at her, literally or figuratively, was attentively studied and practiced. If she didn't succeed immediately, she became hyper focused to the exclusion of all but her makers' orders. Only once had she focused to the exclusion of their voices and had used the lengthy recuperation time to set her mind to avoiding making that mistake again.

She didn't care for her peers; it wasn't necessary. She would work well within a team and became comfortable in a leadership role but their presence always worried at her like a dog at a bone. Having to account for their weaknesses and likelihood of errors meant she was constantly adjusting her opinion of the mission's status even while embroiled in their task. It was exhausting and counterproductive. She still did well at it.

Sentiment was likewise a waste of effort. Understanding it was her strength, however. Finding it and exploiting it in others was her edge. In practical terms, she had to have it to recognize, catalog and account for it as a tool to use on others. It was a fine line to acknowledge and focus on it without becoming a slave to it herself. Fortunately, her sense of balance was phenomenal.


	5. The Leader

A super serum doesn't make a super soldier; it makes a superior male body. The solider was already there- waiting.

That the moral fiber, clarity of thought, quickness of mind and will of iron were born in a weak, puny body was one of the Universe's nasty little "jokes." The human race always strives to say "screw you" to the Universe and, at least once a generation, succeeds. The current generation had a "really smart guy," he was told, but it wasn't mentioned that the man's body was even worse than his own had been. That would have been tactless.

His superior strength, endurance and healing were a terrible privilege and he'd paid a price: he never felt his life was his own again. It belonged to The People. His heart and soul were fine with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you haven't memorized every word of Whedon's "The Avengers" yet- the "really, smart guy" is Stephen Hawking.


	6. The Observer

He wasn't just a scientist; he was a studier of many things. People were a messy subject and science was neat and orderly so it made faster sense. He couldn't omit studying the people, though. Careful understanding of their reasons for their actions made them more predictable. He wasn't into controlling them but into knowing how to get out of their way. It was the first and best lesson the child had learned- being invisible without actually disappearing. If they had to hunt for him the repercussions were always worse.

His skewed sense of self worth- that his mind was the only valuable part of him- was why the Other Guy was so particularly horrifying. The rage part was frightening (what was WRONG with him?), the size was incomprehensible (the scientist KNEW the human body couldn't change like that) but the loss of control and of his intellect was death. Every time. 

In one of those little examples of the Universe having a vicious sense of humor the first people to accept him post-accident also needed the Other Guy. His big green nightmarish side was useful, to a point. Some even bonded with Him after fights and tried to describe the Other Guy to the human once he'd transformed back. He couldn't handle that. He still hadn't decided if they were all mental or just so lost themselves that they would befriend any Thing. Intellectually, he supposed he should be grateful but couldn't manage it and wasn't even sure if there as an implied "yet" in there somewhere.


	7. The Sniper

He may have been brash and outspoken but he'd always had heart. It was one of his downfalls. He cared and also had neediness and couldn't always express that properly. So forthrightness made more sense- less misunderstandings that way.

One of the few things he'd listened to in a mandatory psych appointment had been that he overused the word "love." He loved things, he loved people, he loved ideas. It was part of his enthusiasm for Life which was pretty amazing given his childhood. That he persevered and became a good, but tattered, soul was actually impressive. So, he took the lesson and stopped using "love." He said, "adored, " "delighted" or even "enthused."

Really, at the heart of it all, he loved.


	8. The Team

Just men and a woman- that's what they were. Nothing grand, after all. No altruistic intentions; each with their own reasons and needs. Everything they had been and everything they were and everything they could be; just like everyone else.

They did the best they could with what they were given by their mentors, accomplices and combatants. They took what they each were, what each other was and, together, they made the best of the hand they were dealt. That made them heroes. What was at their cores- their spirit, their heart, their convictions- was what made them super.


End file.
